Batons in hand, Tunisian police marched in single file down a dirt path flanked by olive trees. Ahead of them, migrants fled as their tents burned.

Some migrants stood by helplessly, watching the smoke swirl into the sky just a few hundred metres (yards) away after the authorities torched what had been their temporary homes.

"I don't know what to do," said Bakayo Abdelkadeur, a 26-year-old from Mali, clutching two worn blankets.

For nearly two years, olive groves around El Amra, a town south of Tunis, served as informal camps for thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

This week, authorities launched a sweeping operation to clear out the makeshift shelters located a few kilometres (miles) from Tunisia's Mediterranean coast.

It's a growing flashpoint, fuelled by an anti-migrant campaign and rising tensions with local residents, who complain about the camps and demand that the........

© Al Monitor